Category: International

Written by Kenneth H. Chen. My fieldwork uncovered the critical functions played by Taiwanese education agents in sending international students abroad. These education agents served as mediators of students and parents’ feelings, emotions, and relationship with others. Studies show that middle-class parents and children are calculative and anxious about seeking college education abroad.

Written by Selcuk Colakoglu. After ceasing all diplomatic relations in 1971, Ankara and Taipei needed to re-establish their relations in the late 1980s to address both countries’ rising economic potentials. This period saw many Western countries severing their relations with Beijing over Tiananmen Square in 1989, and Ankara’s relationship with Beijing become strained in the early 1990s due to the Xinjiang Uyghur issue.

Written by Alexandre Tsung-ming Chen. During the last five years relations between the Vatican and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) have developed at a dramatic pace. Many observers have been surprised at this series of events, even questioning whether the Holy See and PRC will normalise relations in the near future. Since the number of countries officially recognising the Republic of China (ROC) in Taiwan has fallen from 22 to 17 in the last two years, the Vatican-PRC diplomatic warming has caught Taipei’s attention and contributed to concerns of a diplomatic crisis.

Written by Joel Atkinson. With so much going on, it is a daunting task to read the tea leaves on Taiwan’s evolving role in the world. Still, there are reasons to be guardedly optimistic about Taiwan and its future. Somewhat counter-intuitively, the sources of this optimism are not friends of Taiwan’s hard-won liberal democracy—Donald Trump and Xi Jinping.

Written by Najee Woods (葉正忠). 23.5 million Taiwanese citizens have been neglected by WHO since being expelled from the United Nations in the early 1970s. Since the late 1990s, Taiwan has attempted on numerous occasions to gain observer status within WHO, but requests were not considered in the WHA agenda. Taiwan does not have the same privileges that other WHO member-states enjoy, such as access to information on the latest outbreaks and epidemics. The lack of access to WHO databases detrimentally affects the Taiwanese population and further creates a blind spot for potential diseases to spread throughout the entire global network.

Written by Hou-ying Li. After five years of voluntary work, organising over 50 volunteers, continuously publishing 2-3 articles per week, and 50k online visits per month with 35k Facebook fans, Insight-Post (洞見國際事務評論網) was finally fully self-funded and committed to making Taiwan see the world.

Written by Ibtisam Ahmed. Pride season in 2019 has brought some extraordinary victories for the global LGBTQ+ community. Bhutan is on the cusp of decriminalising homosexuality after an overwhelming vote in the lower house repealed its anti-sodomy law. The judiciary in Botswana has overturned a colonial-era penal code clause that criminalised homosexuality, continuing the recent trend of queer liberation through decolonisation. Ecuador has become the latest South American country to recognise same-sex marriage.

Written by Vincenzo R. Palmisano. This article was inspired by an application filed before the Rome Court of Appeal in Italy concerning the recognition of a final judgment issued in Taiwan by the District Court of New Taipei. It provides a curious case of how Taiwan’s de facto statehood can be interpreted abroad.

Written by Kuan-Wei Chen. In Taiwan, which experienced authoritarian rule after World War II, the pursuit of human rights protection was an important task in the process of democratization. The first political party rotation took place in 2000, and during the inauguration of President Chen Shui-bian from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), he declared the important policy guidelines of ‘a nation founded upon the principles of human rights as a goal.

Written by Jane Pei-Chen Chang and Kyle Kai-Yuan Cheng. If there is a single strongest conviction behind Taiwan’s tireless fight for its representation in global health, it is that Taiwan takes it as a responsibility to work together for the advancement of human health as a whole.

Follow us via email

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 1,272 other followers

About us

The Taiwan Studies Programme is a research centre based at the University of Nottingham focusing on all aspects of contemporary Taiwan. The Taiwan Studies Programme does not privilege political positions and the views published on Taiwan Insight are those of the author and not the institute.

Contact

If you are interested in writing for Taiwan Insight, please contact:

Dr Chun-YiLeeTaiwan Studies Programme Director and Taiwan Insight Editor in ChiefTaiwan Studies Programme
School of Politics and International Relations
University of NottinghamUniversity ParkNottinghamNG7 2RDChun-yi.Lee@nottingham.ac.uk